AN eight part series charting the life of Upper Wharfedale over a year airs on Yorkshire Television next week.

Filmed by Grassington-based Cheeky Monkey Films, The Real Emmerdale is an observational documentary which follows the lives of a number of Dales residents during a 12-month period based around the 2004 and 2005 Kilnsey Shows.

For Paul Edwards and his wife Katy Metcalfe, filming the series has been a privilege and a delight and, they hope, an insight into what life is really like in a Yorkshire dale.

Katy, who comes from Otterburn, believes the series will be a hit because they were able to develop excellent relationships with the people they were filming.

"People let us in and because we live in Grassington and because my family comes from here, I think we were trusted by the people we were filming. We feel very privileged that we were allowed to document the lives of the people that are featured.

"And you need people who understand the Dales and can deal with the confidential issues that might arise while you're filming and we were able to do that," she added.

Originally commissioned by Yorkshire Television as a six-part series, the company liked what it saw on a June teaser tape and extended the series to eight programmes.

"We've got a prime time as well and Yorkshire Television wanted to get the series going with a flying start so we have two programmes out next week," said Katy.

Narrated by Annette Crosbie, who starred in the hit film Calendar Girls, the first programme features the real Calendar Girls as they celebrate raising a million pounds for Leukaemia Research.

The first programme also introduces farmer's daughter Lisa Walmsley as she tries to find a home she can afford in the town she was born in.

The series will also show what life is like for a hill farmer as it follows Roy Nelson as he cares for 700 Swaledale sheep in some of the most picturesque - and bleak - parts of Upper Wharfedale.

Filming for The Real Emmerdale was done digitally by Paul and Katy and associate producer Sarah Aynesworth, daughter of Broughton Hall estate manager David.

"I think people were surprised sometimes when it was me or Sarah behind the camera," said Katy. "We filmed about 200 hours because we didn't know where these people's lives were going to go."

Some of the other issues looked at during the series include the last official hunt of the Pendle Forest and Craven Hunt and then its first trail hunt through the eyes of one of its masters Jane Pighills.

Cheeky Monkey also had full access to both the Upper Wharfedale Fell Rescue Association and to North Yorkshire Fire Service's Grassington crew and was able to film the amazing work carried out by these teams of volunteers.

"One of the first calls we got was to the farm next door to us which had a fire," said Katy.

"We've also got some pretty dramatic footage of the fell rescue guys which shows the kind of thing they go out to do all year round."

Both Katy and Paul have extensive experience in the television industry with Paul being series producer on programmes including Location Location Location for Channel 4.

Editing has been carried out by Warren Baxter who is originally from Starbotton, and by Martin Harris, an editor from Leeds.

Cheeky Monkey Films was formed in 2001 during the height of the foot and mouth crisis.

The first piece commissioned by Yorkshire Television was Silence of the Lambs, a year-long documentation of how foot and mouth was decimating Dales communities.

The documentary was nominated as best regional programme in the Royal Television Society Awards 2002.

The first Real Emmerdale programme goes out on Tuesday at 7.30pm with a second one at 7.30pm on Thursday.

After that the series runs for a further six weeks on Thursday evenings at 7.30pm.